This study sought to elucidate the contributions of inferior executive function and social competence to the development of internalizing and externalizing problems in primary school. Children (N = 1,115), on average 5.36 years old in first grade, were followed across primary school with measures of multi-method and multi-informant. Results of…

The primary goal in this study was to examine maternal support of numerical concepts at 36 months as predictors of math achievement at 4.5 and 6-7 years. Observational measures of mother-child interactions (n = 140) were used to examine type of support for numerical concepts. Maternal support that involved labeling the quantities of sets of…

This study explored transactional associations among visuomotor integration, attention, fine motor coordination, and mathematics skills in a diverse sample of one hundred thirty-five 5-year-olds (kindergarteners) and one hundred nineteen 6-year-olds (first graders) in the United States who were followed over the course of 2 school years.…

This study investigates the dynamic interplay between teacher-child relationship quality and children's behaviors across kindergarten and first grade to predict academic competence in first grade. Using a sample of 338 ethnically diverse 5-year-old children, nested path analytic models were conducted to examine bidirectional pathways between…

The spacing effect describes the robust finding that long-term learning is promoted when learning events are spaced out in time rather than presented in immediate succession. Studies of the spacing effect have focused on memory processes rather than for other types of learning, such as the acquisition and generalization of new concepts. In this…

This longitudinal study investigated prospective links between social isolation and adjustment problems among 166 (77 girls, 89 boys) Finnish children ages 7 to 9. Peer nominations for social engagement and self-reports of internalizing and externalizing problems were collected in the spring of the 1st and 2nd grade. Friendship moderated…

Two studies investigated children's metacognition about everyday reasoning, assessing how they distinguish reasoning from nonreasoning and "good" reasoning from "bad." In Study 1, 80 1st graders (6-7 years), 3rd graders (8-9 years), 5th graders (10-11 years), and adults (18+ years) evaluated scenarios where people (a) used reasoning, (b) solved…

Data from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Study of Early Child Care, a prospective, longitudinal study involving 933 children, were used to examine relations between cumulative participation in 5 types of out-of-school care (before- and after-school programs, extracurricular activities, sitters, fathers, and…

Examined associations between maternal employment and mothers', fathers', and teachers' perceptions of young children. In contrast to findings from a study by Bronfenbrenner and others, maternal employment was more strongly associated with fathers' and teachers' perceptions of children than with mothers' perceptions of them. (GLR)